HARRISBURG, PA -- The Independent State Store Union issued a statement denouncing the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board's wine vending machines. The union's denunciation is in response to the PLCB's expansion into sales of hard liquor through vending machines. | SEE STORY

"With this announcement, the PLCB continues to foster a climate of increasing consumption which is incongruent with their responsibility to establish policies intended to minimize the harms of alcohol," said ISSU president David Wanamaker.

The union charged that while cigarettes are no longer sold in vending machines in Pennsylvania to restrict accessibility by minors, the PLCB's placement of liquor venders in supermarkets "is an outrageous enticement to promote the industry goal to sell more at any cost." The union went on in its statement to claim that "no machine can replace the face-to-face interaction between people in the effort to limit access by minors."

The liquor store union also accused the PLCB's self-authored "Alternative to Privatization" document as "a thinly veiled attempt to self-privatize without any oversight or regulation."